Spry's Apple Pie in Your Eye
by Spry
Summary: Has absolutely nothing to do with apple pie  yet . CLICKY if you have ten minutes to waste. This is sort of a self-insertion, but I'm sorry, Mary Sue, you're not allowed in here. Hope you like?
1. Spry Surprise

Sokka squirmed and wriggled deeper into his sleeping bag, seeking warmth.

It was cold.

_Much_ too cold.

The distant sound of chirping birds announced the unwelcome presence of morning.

Sokka groaned and rolled over. He only wanted to sleep. Why couldn't the universe at least grant him that?

Nobody really seemed to care what he wanted anyway.

After that whole pirate predicament, Katara had been up at dawn every day, practicing her new waterbending techniques with Aang and making an unnecessary racket in the process.

In fact, he could hear her getting up even now, making obnoxious rustling noises and muttering to herself._ Loudly_.

"Ungh. Shut up, Katara. I'm trying to sleep!"

"Shut up, Sokka. I'm not Katara."

With yet another groan, Sokka ducked his head into his sleeping back in an attempt to block out further noises intended to distract him from sleep.

It took him about five whole seconds to fully comprehend what had just been said.

Sokka suddenly sat bolt upright and glared at the strange girl sorting through their supplies bags.

"Hey!" he cried out, leaping to his feet (still in his sleeping bag, mind you).

The weird girl didn't even look up as he hopped over to her, a scowl set on his face.

"Hey!" He said again, "I don't know who you think you are, but this campsite is reserved by _us_- and that's _my_ stuff you're going through!"

The girl just rolled her eyes as if he couldn't have made a stupider statement.

"I know." She said simply, and went back to rifling through his bag.

"Are you listening to me? Stop trying to steal my stuff!"

"I'm not trying to thief your stuff. There's nothing worthwhile to steal in here. I'm just looking for a pen and a piece of paper."

Sokka blinked. "Oh..Well, what do you need a piece of paper so bad for anyway?"

The girl's head snapped toward him in an impossibly creepy manner, and Sokka cowered under her gaze.

"..MUST...WRITE...FANFICTION..."

She turned back to the bag and proceeded to ignore him.

Sokka shook himself and shuddered for a moment before regaining his..."Sokka-ness", and returned to glaring at her.

"Fanfikshawhat now? Listen, lady, I don't know what you're talking about, but didn't your parents ever teach you that it's _rude_ to-"

"Sokka? What's going on?"

Aang had sat up from his resting spot beside Appa and was now rubbing his eyes sleepily.

He yawned and looked around until his gaze finally fell on the weirdo girl.

A boyish smile lit up his features immediately.

Airbending himself to a standing position, he leapt forward and beamed at the girl (who was still too busy digging through Sokka's stuff to pay attention).

"Sokka! You didn't tell me you had a friend around here!" He said brightly, although his expression changed to one of confusion a moment later.

"Um, why is she going through your bag?"

"That's what _I'm_ trying to figure out!"

At this point she had succeeded in grabbing hold of a pen and paper and had plunked herself down on the nearest rock, scribbling furiously.

"So who is she?"

"_I don't know!_"

"Guys, could you keep it down?"

Katara had emerged from her bedroll, frowning and looking vaguely annoyed.

Her eyes lingered for a moment on Sokka, wondering why the heck he was standing around yelling in his sleeping bag, when she caught sight of the stranger.

"Um, who's she?"

"She's Sokka's friend." Aang answered.

"SHE IS NOT!"

Suddenly the girl jumped up, making them all give a start.

She folded the paper in her hands and tucked it away in her pocket, smiling round at them all as she did so.

"So," she said, clapping her hands and rubbing them together, "Now that that's out of my head, I believe it's time for some re-re-introductions."

She pointed to each individual in turn as she sounded off their names.

"Sokka, Katara, Aang, Momo and Appa. I'm sure you'll all remember me." She grinned.

The Gaang all glanced at one another and shook their heads.

The girl's grin melted away and was immediately replaced by a scowl.

"Oh, come on! Fleeps, why does this happen every time? It's me!"

They stared blankly.

"Spry!"

An awkward silence.

Spry glared at them until a sudden idea occurred to her. She dug around in her pocket until she found what she was looking for.

"Well, maybe THIS will refresh your memory!" She cried, pulling out a knife and brandishing it before their faces.

Sokka squealed like a little girl and dove behind Katara for protection.

Spry frowned. "Relax. It's not a knife, it's a letter opener. Sheesh, you guys are so dated."

She magically produced an envelope (which was actually already opened, causing her to frown deeper and put away the kni- uh, letter opener) and pulled from out of it a sheet of paper, which she stuck in front of Katara's nose.

"Read it." She ordered, and watched smugly as Katara began to read.

" 'Weird Crazy Maniac,

We can't take it any more. Please stay away from us at all times at at least a ten mile radius. We can no longer endure your screaming, insanity, random comments and obvious mental issues possibly involving rabies.

Please, please, PLEASE stay as far away from us as is physically possible.

The Gaang'."

Katara winced. "Who in the world is 'The Gaang'?" She said, looking around at them all.

"Oh."

Sokka peeked at the note over Katara's shoulder.

"Well, I don't remember writing that." He said stubbornly.

Spry snatched the note out of Katara's hand. "That's because you didn't. Katara did. Sheesh, and they call _me_ crazy."

"And what was that part about crazy maniacs, screaming and rabies?" Said Aang, scratching his bald head.

"What? Oh, nothing." Spry answered with an added-on sniff. She refolded the note and hid it again within one of her pockets (Sokka was beginning to notice she had quite a few).

Turning her attention back to the confused trio, she smiled a random smile.

"If you guys still don't believe me, I have further evidence on my laptop."

"Hey! Wait a minute!" Sokka screeched suddenly, "If you had a laptop the whole time, then why did you need to dig through my stuff for some paper? Huh?"

"Wha? Oh, yeah, Well, I kinda temporarily misplaced it or something."

Sokka's face turned so red with rage she was afraid his face might explode.

She scooted a little farther away from him just in case.

Ignoring him, Katara crossed her arms and stared at Spry with "unconvinced" practically written all over her face.

"So tell me then, 'Spry'," she said, "What exactly are you doing here?"

"I actually came to get you guys to write a fanfiction with me." Spry answered, and grinned evilly. She might as well sieze the chance while none of them seemed to be able to remember her or her fanfictions.

"Sure thing!" Aang answered cheerily. "The Avatar's here to help. What exactly do we do?"

"Aang," said Katara, placing a hand on his shoulder, "I don't know about this. We should probably get going as soon as possible, and-I mean- she's kind of.." She glanced at Spry and made a weird face, which in itself was enough to prove her point.

"Don't worry!" Spry jumped in, "All you need to do is let me come with you."

Sokka and Katara exchanged glances and both turned to Aang, who nodded eagerly.

"Okay. I guess the more, the merrier, right? Do you have any bending skills?"

Spry took a very long time to answer. She looked around shiftily before saying slowly, "Um...Yes. I am... an all powerful PLOTBENDER! MWAHAHA! FEEL MY WRATH!"

Complete and utter silence.

Spry looked around at them all. "What?"

Sokka turned toward the other two. "I'm having second thoughts about this."

"WELL, YOU'RE TOO LATE!" Spry practically screamed in his face. To prove her point, she sprinted toward Appa, ran up his tail and planted herself firmly on his back.

Shaking her head, Katara moved to go pack up camp. Aang followed suit, while Sokka collapsed back onto the ground and attempted to catch some well-earned zzz's.

Spry grinned to herself and pulled from her pocket a clipboard, on which she checked one item off the list. She giggled in a way that suggested damage to the brain and said out loud, "This is going to be fun!"

Sokka groaned. "Shut up."

Spry smiled. These fictional characters had no idea what they'd gotten themselves into.


	2. Spry's Apple Pie in your FACE!

**Yay! Another chapter! Good to see I had the guts to come back.**

**Also, I forgot to mention in the last chapter that this is my very first fanfic, which is why it's not so good. Come to think of it, I forgot to mention anything earlier. Oops. Ah, well. Enjoy!**

**Reviews = W00t!**

"I say we get rid of her while we can."

A snapping sound.

"Ow! Katara!"

"Stop complaining, Sokka. Spry! Wake up!"

"Snrk! Huh?" Spry's eyes fluttered open.

Katara was leaning over her, calling her name and shaking her shoulders. Violently.

"Agh! Stop! I'm up, I'm up!" Katara let go and stood up with a look of exasperation on her face. Spry sat up from her "star" position on her back atop Appa's saddle and looked around.

Aang and Sokka were both sitting on the opposite side of the saddle from her, looking disgruntled and rubbing their shins for some reason. At least Sokka was finally out of his sleeping bag.

Sokka glared.

"_Whuh_?" Spry demanded groggily, wiping the drool off her face.

"Did you know that you kick in your sleep?" The water tribe boy said coldly.

"What? Oh, yeah. My teddy bear hates that." Spry grinned and stood up, wobbling.

It only took her a single step before she was on the ground on her face.

Sokka and Aang laughed shamelessly, and Katara had an amused smirk on her face- which was bad news because, as it so happens, smirks made Spry go absolutely WACKO.

She sprang up immediately and turned to them with a glare that made Sokka duck and cover. Katara's smirk vanished instantly as Spry stomped over to her, hands on her hips and fire coming out of her ears. Yeah, what was with that?

"Excuse me," Spry said icily, "But did somebody order Spry's Apple Pie in your _FACE_? _YAAAAHHH_!"

She lunged for Katara's throat, which emanated a squeaking sound as Katara shielded her face with her arms. She was unharmed, however, as in the next moment Spry's stomache growled. And let me tell you, Spry can NOT work on an empty stomache.

She collapsed and huddled into a little ball on the ground, clutching her stomache and moaning piteously. "Why do you hate me, morning?" She cried, "Why?"

Katara peeked at her from behind her hands.

"It isn't morning," she corrected, "It's midday. We were trying to get you up earlier, but you were in a coma or something."

Spry's head snapped up to glare at her again, and Katara instantly wished she hadn't said anything.

"I don't care what stupid time of day it is, I just woke up- AND WHERE'S MY BREAKFAST?"

All three cartoon characters flinched at the sudden outburst, and Momo took to the air with an alarmed screech.

"We already ate breakfast." Aang explained, eyes wide with terror.

"Well, I hope it was something good!" Spry grumbled, standing up. "You are what you eat, you know. So I guess that makes Sokka meaty, Aang's a vegetable, and I have no idea what Katara eats. Water tribe prune stew, I guess." Katara glared, but Spry took no notice.

"And as for me-OOH! NUTS!" Spry took off suddenly and crouched down, picking up from the ground some random leeching nuts that seemed to be forming a trail into the forest.

"Hey, wait!" Said Aang, jumping up, but Sokka held him back.

"Quick! While she's distracted, let's make a break for it!" He whispered urgently, but was interrupted by a loud gasp from Spry, who had dissappeared behind a clump of trees.

"Oh my galoshes!" She cried, "Lionel!"

Katara and Aang both glanced at each other questioningly, and in an instant had hopped off Appa and run after Spry. Reluctantly, Sokka followed.

When they arrived on the scene, they found Spry staring with wide eyes at something on the ground a little ways ahead of her.

It was a Fire Nation trap. And what was more, sitting on top of it was a shiny silver laptop.

It took the group only about a second to figure out what she was going to do next.

"Spry, _don't_!" All three cried, but it was too late.

In the blink of an eye, she had run straight towards the animal trap with arms outstretched, her eyes set on the laptop.

There was a loud _snap!_ followed by a scream, and she was hanging by the cage in the trees. Right where she belonged.

It sounded as if she was screaming in terror, when really she was just screaming cause she felt like it. "Oh my galoshes! Did you guys see that? That was awesome! You should try it some time! Hey, I found Lionel! Isn't that great? Oh my-"

"Stop yelling!" Sokka yelled, but was only met with the reply, "Yelling is a bonus!"

The Gaang all looked at each other. "Should we cut her down?" Aang asked.

Sokka was about to reply when he was interrupted by more screaming from above.

"AAA! GET ME DOWN! THEY'RE GONNA EAT ME! AAA!"

"Quick! Cut the ropes!" Katara told Sokka, who instantly gave those evil ropes a taste of his almighty boomerang. Spry's cage landed with a thump on the ground and split open.

She was now laying on her back, trying to count how many times she'd ended up on the ground today, clutching her laptop protectively to her chest.

"What was that?" Sokka demanded, "You just started screaming suddenly!"

At the mention of screaming, Spry shut her eyes and screamed as loud as her lungs could possibly allow . The three clapped their hands over their poor, suffering ears until Spry finally ran out of air to scream with. Or so they thought.

"AAA! You should have SEEN them! They had MURDER IN THEIR EYES! They were gonna KILL me!"

"_Who_ were going to kill you?" Katara had to yell over Spry's ranting.

The maniac's eyes became as large as dinner plates, and they had to lean in to hear her whisper, "The...the _monkeys_!"

Sokka raised an eyebrow. "The _monkeys_ were going to kill you. Right."

Loud "Oo! Oo! Eee Eee!"s could be heard from the trees above. Spry opened her mouth to scream again, but Sokka shoved his foot in it to prevent the noise. Ewww...

"You have a phobia of _monkeys_?" He said incredulously. "_Why_?"

Spry's eyes shone with astonishment. "Mff-mugh muh mmiffil!" She said, before remembering there was a shoe in her mouth. Yanking it out, she sat up and repeated, "Because they're evil! You know when they're looking at you, they're just waiting for the moment to strike! And it's not a phobia, it's a HATRED!"

She stood up and frowned, because she liked to do this when she was pretending to be serious (which she had an inability to be).

"If it weren't for Lionel here, I probably would have died!" She stated dramatically.

Aang looked around in confusion. "Who's Lionel?"

Katara looked down at the object Spry still clutched to her chest. "You mean... your laptop?"

Spry rolled her eyes. "Well, duh. Who else would I be talking about? Momo?"

"But that doesn't make any sense!" Sokka cried, flailing his arms in a very Sokka-ish manner. "You said you lost your laptop, and you found it in a Fire nation trap? Does this thing even belong to you?" He attempted and failed to pry it- that is, Lionel- out of her grasp.

"Of course it belongs to me! Who else would leave their laptop lying around in a place like that?"

Aang had been crouching down to examine the traps and now stood up with a look of concern on his face. "Guys, stop yelling!" He pleaded.

"But yelling is a bo-"

Katara shushed Spry into moody silence and turned back to the hundred-and-twelve-year old avatar. "What is it, Aang?"

"Well, if these are Fire Nation traps, then don't you think that the Fire Nation are probably-"

"THE FIRE NATION? WOO-HOO!" Spry screamed randomly.

"FREEZE! Put your weapons on the ground!"

Spry turned to look at the Fire Nation soldier who had just burst through the shrubbery and realized that Sokka, Katara and Aang were all glaring at her. She grinned sheepishly.

"Whoops."

**Yelling is totally a bonus. And it's true, I really don't like smirks. This is why I hate Orlando Bloom. Reviews make me dance all night! But please review anyway.**


	3. Jet

**Well, here we are again. This chapter took a little longer to write, partly because of other matters but mostly because of laziness. :)**

**Special thanks to Fancy Pants Penguin Jiao-Jie for taking the time to read and review, and for being so nice.**

**Her prize for being the first reviewer is- another chapter! Uh, yay?**

Spry looked up at the sky and smacked her lips. She was hungry, having missed breakfast.

Every little thing reminded her of food. That cloud looked like a nice, warm pile of scrambled eggs. That bird could make some adequate bacon, if only bacon were made out of birds.

Boy, could she go for a muffin right now. Or some crumbcake. Or, better yet, some ice cream! Ooh! Awesome discovery! What if there was _sky_ flavored ice cream? She began devising the recipe in her head when suddenly her train of thought was interrupted as she was shoved unexpectedly in the small of her back.

That brought her back to the far less pleasant reality.

They were being force-marched by the fire nation scout who had found them in the woods, and Spry was quickly becoming annoyed with him.

"Get moving." He growled, and prodded her in the back again.

Spry threw him a glare and drummed her fingers against Lionel impatiently. "Where are we going, anyway?" She whined.

"To cam- uh, I mean- Shut up." Answered the scout.

"To camp, huh? Well, at least something somewhat sensible is happening." She reasoned with herself, "I'm pretty sure the last chapter was total claptrap."

The scout frowned. "'Claptrap'?" He repeated, "Nobody says that word any more. It's out-dated."

"So what? So is 'simpleton', 'poppycock' and the typewriter, but I still think they're cool."

"Yeah, but the thing about that is..."

While they were having this pointless conversation, Sokka had sidled up to Aang.

"Aang!" He hissed, "It's just one guy! We can take him on if I can get my boomerang back!" Katara had heard and moved closer.

"He's right." She whispered, "We should take this guy down before we reach his camp. He confiscated our weapons, but you and I can still use our bending."

Sokka scowled. "But what about me? I don't have super special awesome powers! What am_ I _supposed to do?"

"Sokka, you can... um.." Aang looked around for an idea. "You can... use a stick?" He suggested hopefully, but was only met with more scowling.

"Get ready," Katara whispered, "We'll jump him in three..."

"Two..." Aang added.

"O-" Sokka began, but was cut off as they suddenly stumbled into a large clearing full of scarlet tents and armored men.

"!" He cursed under his breath.

A couple of the soldiers looked up as they entered the clearing. The Leader, a big, burly man with a Hitler mustache and a set of bulky, fire nation emblazoned armor stepped up to the group and accosted them with an impressive glower.

"What's this?" He grumbled, looking over the group of captives. His gaze finally fell on Aang's arrow, and his eyes widened.

"That-that's the Avata-!" He cried, but didn't get to finish as a small child in a helmet appeared out of nowhere and landed on his head.

Complete havoc followed as more and more ragamuffin children appeared and were somehow beating up grown men who were twice their size. ?

Aang and Katara had joined in the fight, while Sokka looked around desperately for a stick. Somewhere in the midst of it all, an older boy with a piece of barley sticking out of his mouth was being a total show-off.

Swinging from a nearby tree branch with his hook swords, the boy flung himself in Spry's direction and kicked the scout who she'd been chatting with to the ground, knocking him out cold.

Spry gasped in horror. "You _killed_ Jinju! And we were just getting acquainted!"

He just ignored her and ran off to go fight some more fire nation soldiers.

Sokka dashed to the unconscious scout and dug around in his pockets until he found his confiscated boomerang. With a loud war cry, he plunged into the battle.

Spry just stood and watched, wondering if she was supposed to be doing something and starting to think back to that sky ice cream.

Right in front of her, Sokka made a dive for a rather portly fire nation soldier, but was beat to it by the stick-in-mouth kid.

"Hey!" Sokka cried in dismay, "That one was mine!"

"(Witty good guy line)!" The boy answered with a smirk (luckily Spry wasn't paying attention), and returned to the fight.

It wasn't long before the whole thing was over, with all of the soldiers either knocked out or immobilized in some way. The ragamuffins were now poking through the camp's supplies, pretty much ignoring the Gaang.

The show-off boy strutted up to Katara and took the twig out of his mouth to speak.

"Hey, there. Pretty hot, aren't I? The name's Jet. Like a jet plane. Because jet planes are cool." He said, drawing a blush from Katara.

"Wow!" Said Aang, visibly impressed. "Thanks for helping us out, Jet!"

Sokka's eye twitched. "What do you mean, 'wow'? He _chews_ on a _twig_! He's a _hillbilly_!"

Katara rolled her eyes. "Just ignore Sokka. He's just mad because his "instincts" in-stink. I'm Katara, by the way."

Jet continued as if Sokka hadn't said anything. "Yeah. These here are my Freedom Fighters. Pretty neat, huh?"

"No." Spry said sourly. She was still thinking about poor Jinju. And sky ice cream. And hillbillies.

"Wow. This is amazing!" Said Katara, looking around at all the children. Well, most of them were children, anyway.

An enormous man nearby was hauling large barrels of the fire nation's supplies.

Jet followed her gaze and pointed him out.

"That there's Pipsqueak. Next to him is the Duke, Longshot, and Smellerbee. Over there is Jellylegs and Sneers."

"Hey, Spry!" Aang said suddenly, "With your name, you could be a Freedom Fighter, too!"

Spry stared back at him coldly. "What, and live in the trees like a monkey? NOT LIKEL-"

Sokka clapped a hand over her mouth before she could finish.

"Are anybody else's ears starting to hurt because of her?" He asked.

Jet's eyes narrowed in suspicion. "I never told you that we lived in the trees..."

Spry glared back at him.

"You live in trees?" Said Aang excitedly. "Cool! Can we see?"

Jet smirked, making Spry's pupils become huge, and she went into some sort of siezure or something, foaming at the mouth.

"You want to see my club house, little man? And what about you, Katara?"

Katara nodded eagerly. "Yes, please!"

**~oOoOo~**

About ten minutes later, they were standing in front of a really tall tree with a rope dangling from it.

"We're here!" Said Jet.

Sokka looked around. "And where exactly _is_ here? I don't see any tree houses."

Jet handed him the rope. "Hold this."

Sokka took the rope and looked at it suspiciously. "What is this, like a magic trick or something? Well, I can tell you that it isn't work-AAAA!"

The rope was tugged upward violently and Sokka zipped out of sight. A moment later the rope came back down and Jet offered it to Spry, who had earlier ended her siezurific fit just in time to follow them here. She glared at him.

"I don't think so. How do I know there's no monster at the top that you put there to eat Sokka?"

Jet just shrugged. "Suit yourself."

He and Katara went up together, but when they got to the top Spry was already waiting there for them, criss-cross applesauce and typing away at her laptop.

Katara gaped. "What the- weren't you just down there?" She looked down over the edge of the flooring to see if Spry was actually still down on the ground.

Spry shrugged without looking up. "Stairs."

Once again, Jet regarded her with suspicion but was interrupted from his brooding when a Freedom Fighter (who had been identified as Jellylegs earlier) shouted, "Hey, Jet! Dinner time!"

Suddenly Spry jumped up, eyes wide. "D-dinner?" Her stomache growled loudly as if for emphasis.

Jellylegs didn't know what to make of that. "Um.. yeah. Over there." He jerked a thumb in the direction of the tables they usually ate at.

Spry was over there before you could say "hunger-crazed maniac." She had gone all day without eating breakfast or lunch, been captured by fire nation soldiers, and survived through a smirk-induced siezure. Nothing was going to get between her and food right now- which was unfortunate, because Sokka _was_.

When everybody had settled down to dinner (Sokka had to be dragged there by Aang), Jet stood up and directed everyone's attention to himself.

"Hey, guys. Good work today. You know, those fire nation probably think we're a bunch of dumb kids. And they could be right about that."

Dead silence filled with a lot of glaring.

"But probably they're not."

"YEAH!"

"WOO-HOO!"

"ALL RIGHT!"

He sat back down again, looking pleased with himself, and continued eating. With the twig still in his mouth. Dude, does he sleep with that thing?

Sokka quirked an eyebrow. "Um, did anybody else think that speech was really lame?"

Katara ignored him. "Nice speech, Jet!"

Jet smirked. "Yeah, I'm really good with motivation and stuff."

"WHAT?" Said Sokka loudly, "You only said like five sentences!"

"I know. Pretty sweet, huh?"

Sokka fumed.

Spry stopped stuffing herself momentarily so she could open up Lionel and type,

'_Note to self: Kill Jet'_

Aang looked over curiously. "What're you typing?" He asked.

"Oh, nothing." Spry said, and added to the document,

'_Note to self: Kill nosy Avatar'_

**Hey, what do you think Spry looks like? Feel free to send in your opinion.**

**Hope you enjoyed it!**


	4. DANCE, CARNIVORE!

**Before you ask: Yes, a laptop can be complacent. I'VE SEEN IT!**

**Review, please. No, really. Aw, c'mon! Be a friend? I promise I'll only jump up and down and scream a teensy bit!**

Spry frowned unhappily.

She had plunked herself down on the flooring of Jet's club house in the trees, staring at the computer screen of Lionel, who was sitting complacently in her lap. It was very early in the morning, and only a few Freedom Fighters were awake, flying around on the zip-lines or just going about their daily business.

And very _suspicious_ business, if you wanted her opinion.

She was frowning unhappily because the document she had started at yesterday's dinner was now telling her she needed to kill about fifty-three different people, and she didn't know if she had the time for that in her schedule.

And, to add to that, it was 7 A.M.

Spry NEVER wakes up at 7 A.M.

Grumbling, she scrolled down over the part that told her to kill Pipsqueak, Momo and a banana, and stopped as something else caught her eye:

_Note to self: Get up way too early for unspecified, plot-inducing reasons_

Oh. Well, at least that was explained. Standing up, she closed Lionel and somehow managed to fit him inside one of her many pockets.

She placed her hands on her hips and she looked around, wondering when this boring beginning would end and the story-line would come back.

That's when she heard Sokka's voice, and smiled.

~oOoOo~

"Sokka. Hey, Sokka! Wake up!"

Sokka rolled over and attempted to wave Jet off.

"Not now, Katara," he said groggily, "Sleepy time."

Jet tried again, prodding the water tribe boy's back. "Come on, Sokka! You wouldn't wanna miss breakfast, would you?"

With a snort, Sokka sat up and looked around wildly. "Whozzed breakfiss?" He demanded.

Jet flinched. Sokka was not a pretty sight in the morning. "Whoah, calm down there." He said, standing up. Sokka rubbed his eyes and yawned, starting to come back to his senses.

"What time is it?" He asked, "Isn't it kind of early for breakfast?"

"It's never too early for Jet."

Sokka shuddered in response. Jet moved toward the door. "Get up and follow me. You can help with the first mission of the day."

Sokka stood, fixed his "man pony-tail" and followed Jet out and into the cold morning air. Jet lead him through their little village in the sky, walking quickly and barely saying a word. He'd explained already that they were headed toward the dining table, where they would be met by only a couple Freedom Fighters who were going to help them with their task.

Supposedly, there were two breakfasts every morning- one at six for the early risers and one at eight for everybody else.

"So.. This early breakfast isn't some kind of initiation feast, is it? 'Cause I don't think I want to be a part of your club." Sokka said, raising an eyebrow at the dirty, half-wild looking children wandering about.

Jet didn't seem to hear him and kept walking. A couple of minutes later, he stopped and turned to Sokka with a smirk. "This is it!" He said, and crawled down a small rope ladder to the landing below.

Sokka followed and found himself right in front of thr long table laden with warm, delicious-smelling food. He sat down and looked hungrily at the meal, noting as he did so that there were less than a dozen other kids there.

He was instantly filled with disappointment, however, when he looked over the selection of food items. Reaching over, he picked up what looked suspiciously like a spring roll and sniffed it.

"What's with this?" He said loudly, attracting the attention of all the other diners. "Where's all the meat? No cowbacon, no chicken-pork, no nothing!"

Jet chuckled. "Sorry, Sokka. It's kinda hard to keep livestock up here in the trees, you know?"

Sokka pouted. "What about fish? There's got to be a lake or something around here, right?"

The table went dead silent. Sokka looked around in confusion. "What?"

Jet stood up and smiled, though there was a cold glint in his eye. "It's just that we don't usually _eat_ fish around here, Sokka."

While Sokka was puzzling over the unusual emphasis on the word "eat", Jet rubbed his hands together and spoke to the assembled diners. "All right, gang. Let's get on with the show!" He clapped a hand on Sokka's shoulder and smiled.

"Come on, Sokka. I'll show you what to do."

~oOoOo~

Sokka groaned loudly. He was not enjoying this.

After the non-meat breakfast, the whole group had descended to the forest floor and walked a little ways toward the outskirts of the nearby village. There they had found two large wagons filled to the maximum with crates of all sizes.

For the last forty-five minutes, all they had done was unload the wagons and haul the crates a couple of feet away to hide them in the bushes. It was strenuous work, and the cargo stank of saltwater and seaweed.

Sokka was currently trying to move one of the bigger crates into the bushes, and it wasn't working so well. Puffing, he leaned up against his burden, moaning and wiping the sweat of off his forehead.

"Keep at it, Sokka." Said Jet, passing by with a crate no bigger than a jewelry box in his own hands. Sokka glared.

"Why am I the only person you woke up for this?" He whined, "What about Aang? Why didn't you make him get up?"

"Because _you're_ the one who's _so _strong." Said Smellerbee sarcastically.

"And what's in these things, anyway?" He said, knocking on his unbearably heavy crate. "They're like, fifty pounds! And they _stink_!"

"Just keep hauling!" Smellerbee snapped.

Sokka sulked, muttering to himself.

Fifteen minutes afterward he was back in the trees, making his way toward where he'd woken up an hour earlier. He was rubbing his now sore back, ranting to himself about meatless breakfasts, smelly crates and how dumb the name Smellerbee was.

Suddenly he became aware that somebody was watching him, and spun around to see Spry grinning at him from her place against a tree.

"Hi." She said.

"AAAH!" Sokka screamed and leapt about a foot back. "Stay back!" He shrieked, "I've already had enough weirdness today!"

"Chillax, Sokka. I'm only here to TORTURE YOU! MWAHAHA!"

He squealed and cowered like a two-year-old afraid of his closet. Wait a minute- _I'm _still afraid of my closet! o.O

"Sokka? Spry? What are you guys doing?"

Spry had a pen pointed at Sokka's throat, and he was whimpering whilst trying to hide behind his arms. They both paused and looked up as Katara came toward them with bewilderment written all over her face. "What _are_ you guys doing?"

"We're..um.." Spry said the third thing that popped into her head (the first two being entirely incoherent). "We're rehearsing for a play! DANCE, CARNIVORE!"

She began stabbing at his legs with the pen, laughing maniacally.

"Stop that!" Katara ordered, snatching the pen out of the crazy girl's hand. She made a grab for it, but Katara moved it out of her reach.

"Where were you two? Sokka, I haven't seen you all morning!"

Sokka crossed his arms and glared. "Jet made me help with his dirty work. We were moving giant crates around all morning. I don't know if it was stolen cargo or what, but something about it seems really fishy to me."

A light bulb went on over his head.

"That's it!" He cried, and turned to run back in the direction from whence he came. "just you wait!" He called over his shoulder, "I'll show _you_ about Jet!"

"Sokka, wait!" Katara shouted after him. "Sokka! Where are you going?" She sighed and shook her head. "'Show me about Jet'... Come on, let's go find Aang."

She turned and found that Spry was staring at her with an odd expression.

"What?" Katara asked.

"YAAAH!" Spry tackled her in an attempt to retrieve her beloved pen.

~oOoOo~

Sokka was absent for the rest of the day.

Katara was starting to get worried when he didn't show up for lunch either.

She, Spry and Aang were all sitting around right after the noonday meal, and Katara had just voiced her thoughts about going to go look for her moronic brother.

"Relax, Katara," said Aang, feeding Momo another leeching nut, "Sokka's probably just out making friends."

Spry mumbled something about purple dishwashers eating bananas which Katara wisely chose to ignore.

She shook her head. "No, I don't thinks so. He said something about 'showing me about Jet'. That was two hours ago. I really should go look for him." She concluded, standing up.

Spry gasped randomly. "Oh my fruitcake blueberry sandwich! Maybe the _monkeys_ got him!"

"What is it with you and monkeys anyway, Spry?" Said Aang, "Back at the air nomads' temple, we-"

"Shh!" Katara said suddenly, "Do you guys here that?"

Everyone strained their ears to listen. From somewhere nearby there came a wet, sloshy squelching noise. The sound came closer and closer until, from around the corner-

"Sokka!" Katara cried. She ran to hug him, but stopped midway. "Um, why are you all wet?"

Sokka was dripping from head to foot. His clothes were completely soaked, and as he came closer, that sloshy squelchy noise came from his water-clogged boots. An unholy smell wafted from him to the rest of the group, making them all clap a hand over their noses.

"Sokka, where did you go? You stink!" Said Aang, placing a hand over Momo's nose, too.

"Stink like a _fox_!" Said Sokka, turning to point a triumphant finger in Katara's face. "Your boyfriend's keeping _fish_ in those crates! _Fish_! What do you think of him now, huh?"

Katara looked flabbergasted. "Sokka, you're not making any sense!"

"Ha! I knew he was hiding something! I thought the whole thing smelled fishy- literally! So I went back to the crates- except I got lost, and it was hard to find them since we put them in the bushes- and then I busted one open, and a huge squid-turtle came out!"

Aang raised an eyebrow. "Aren't those endangered?"

"It doesn't matter! The point is, now you know the truth about Jet!" He stood there, panting and dripping, until Katara spoke up.

"What do you mean 'the truth about Jet'? That he has fish in a crate? Sokka, you realize this isn't valid incriminating evidence, right?"

Sokka's triumphant expression was replaced by a scowl. "Oh, I see how it is. Still in denial, are you? Fine. You'll see. You'll all see!"

With that, he squelched off in another direction.

"Oh, no." Katara groaned, "What do you think he'll do next?"

"I don't know, Katara. I'm pretty sure he's lost it. Spry, what do you think?"

They both turned to see that Spry had passed out from fish smell. She does that.

**I'm still deciding whether or not I want to make this chapter longer or the next chapter shorter. Ah, well, I'm sure I'll figure it out. **

**Please, please, PLEASE review. What if I told you it makes my puppy sad when you don't review? Then would you do it?**


	5. Jet's totally sound reasoning

**I'm so happy! I now have TWO reviewers! I guess that thing I said about the puppy worked. Uh, I mean, KEEP REVIEWING! HE'S STILL SAD! Applause and cake for Fancy Pants Penguin Jiao-Jie and Forever Fyre! Actually, maybe Jiao-Jie should have scrambled eggs instead... ;D**

Sokka slithered stealthily commando-style through the forest as silently as any cat...

Except he wasn't stealthy or silent, and he wasn't very good at slithering.

_Snap! Crack! Rustle!_

"Oof! Ow! Ouch!" Sokka unsnagged yet another twig that had entangled itself in his hair. He had scratches all over his arms from branches swiping at him, twigs and leaves all over his hair and clothes, and a couple of small cuts on his face where a group of birds had decided to peck at him when he disturbed their nest.

To make a long story short, he was exhausted, uncomfortable, and totally lost.

It had started when he had made up his mind to prove that Jet was a criminal, or a vigilante or something like that. He just _had_ to show Katara that he was right! So he woke up extremely early and decided to tail Jet and a group of his cronies through the woods where they were sneaking off to.

That had started off great. But at some point they must have given him the slip, because he was left here by himself, wandering around the forest (for two hours so far) with no idea which way he was supposed to go.

Sokka slashed angrily at another vine with his machete, muttering complaints to any tree that would listen. "Stupid vines getting in the stupid way all the stupid time... Why, universe?" He cried to the heavens, "What did I ever do to you?"

He looked down at the weapon in his hand. "I mean, _besides_ hack you with a machete."

With a sigh, he took another step forward, tripped on a vine, and landed flat on his face.

Scowling, he picked himself up and dusted off his clothes. "Great. Now what? Is it going to rain or something?"

"_Mreeep?"_

Sokka froze. Turning slowly to his left, he was oh-so-delighted to discover the lemur-skunk sitting there, staring at him.

"Oh, ha ha," he said sarcastically to the sky, "Very funny. And what do _you_ want?"

The skunk continued to gaze at him curiously.

"Fine. Not talking." Sokka crossed his arms and stared back at it. "You haven't seen a guy with a twig in his mouth walking around over here, have you?"

"_Mreeep."_

"Didn't think so... Hey! Jet said there was no meat around here! I mean, I've never eaten skunk meat, but I'm willing to try,"

The skunk's eyes became wide with fright.

"No, I didn't mean-" Sokka began, but the skunk had already lifted up it's tail.

"AAAAH!" He ran at full-speed through the trees ahead, screeching and covering his face. "Get it off! Get it off!" He cried, rubbing at his arms as if that would dispel the stench, "Ew, ew ew!"

"...and move that one over here."

Sokka stopped suddenly and strained his ears to listen.

"Come on, guys! We want these to be ready when the water comes. No, over here."

He moved closer to the source of the voices, peering out from behind a bush. From between branches, he could see Jet standing with his back to him, giving orders to his cronies. The crates stood all in a line, teetering at what seemed to be the edge of a cliff. As Sokka stood on tiptoe, he could see the rooftops of the village down in the valley below.

"Are the explosives ready?" Jet asked.

"Right by the dam where you want them, Jet."

"Good. Just remember- when I give signal number one, light the blasting jelly. When I give signal number two, release the crates. Those Fire nation'll never know what hit 'em." A couple of snickers could be heard.

"You guys got that? Good. I'm gonna go fi-" Jet stopped suddenly and sniffed the air.

"What is it, Jet?" Said the Duke

"I smell a skunk." Sokka sniffed himself and wrinkled his nose.

"So what? What's the problem?" Said Smellerbee impatiently.

Jet shook himself. "Right. It's probably nothing." Sokka suppressed a sigh of relief and turned to go. He'd already heard all he wanted to know. Man, he couldn't _wait_ to see Katara's face when he told her!

His foot came down on a small twig and it snapped in half with a loud _crack!_

Sokka froze. The Freedom Fighters had gone completely silent.

He was considering making a break for it when the bushes in front of him parted and he found himself staring directly into the face of Pipsqueak.

"Um.. hi?" Said Sokka.

Pipsqueak grabbed him by the scruff of his neck and lifted him up. "Hey, Jet! I found your skunk!" He dropped Sokka onto the ground right at Jet's feet. Longshot and Smellerbee pinned his arms behind his back.

Jet crouched down to smirk at him. "Well would you look at what we have here?" He said.

Sokka glared. "I've got the dirt on you, Jet! I know exactly what you're planning to do. You're going to flood that village down there! So, HA! TAKE THAT!"

Jet LOL'd. "I'm not just flooding the village, Sokka. I'm turning it into an ocean. See these here?" He patted the nearest crate. "These are all full of fish. Most of them endangered. Originally we were just going to replace the village with a lake, 'cause people were starting to stink around here. Then we found these just lying around, and now there's a double purpose to flooding the whole place! Sound like a noble cause to me."

"That's sick!" Sokka protested, "There are innocent people down there! You're totally nuts!""

Jet put on his most annoying bad-attempt-at-persuasive tone. "Sokka, think about it. Would you rather have a Fire Nation village and a whole bunch of smelly Freedom Fighters, or a nice hot spring and a home for endangered animals? And not to mention all the fish we could be eating instead of spring rolls!"

One of the Freedom Fighters furrowed his brow. "But Jet, you said we weren't gonna eat the-"

"SHH!" Jet shushed him with a glare and turned back to Sokka. "You see? There's like, _so_many reasons why all those people down there deserve to die!"

"But all those reasons are for your own personal convenience!" Sokka cried.

Jet groaned. "You're just not seeing it, Sokka. You know what? I promised Spry this chapter wouldn't be too serious-" Sokka was like, qua? "-so I'm gonna go pay a visit to your sister and your friend the Avatar and go bend them to my will. Take 'im for a walk, boys!"

Smellerbee scowled. "I'm a girl!"

"Yeah, whatever." Said Jet rudely, "See ya!" With that he sprinted away to go mold some more foolish minds.

Smellerbee and Pipsqueak dragged Sokka to his feet. "Get moving!" The former ordered, shoving him between the shoulder blades.

Sokka threw her a menacing glare but said nothing. Instead he focused his energy on trying to think up a way to contact Katara. After about a minute of brainstorming, the most brilliant thing he could come up with was squinting in the general direction of the clubhouse and trying to communicate with her mentally.

**~oOoOo~**

Not too far away, Katara was kneeling over Spry's unconscious form and trying everything she could think of to get her to wake up. She had slapped her, pinched her, screamed at her and splashed her face with cold water multiple times. Frustrated, she sat racking her brains for any other possible method to make her conscious again.

Aang was beside her, scratching his head as he sought to remember what the Monks did to get the children up early in the morning. "Uh.. We could get Appa to lick her face?" He said uncertainly.

Katara shuddered. "No thanks, Aang. I don't think that would do much."

"Well.. It was a bad smell that made her pass out, right?" Said Aang, "Then maybe a bad smell will wake her up. All we need is something that reeks!"

Katara pondered over this new idea. "Maybe. I'll go get one of Sokka's socks." She stood up and turned to leave, but just at that moment Spry began to stir.

She tossed and turned, muttering something. "Sokka... trouble.. captured.." She mumbled, still with her eyes shut. Aang looked up at Katara, shocked.

"What did she just say?" He asked.

Katara shook her head and knelt back down in front of the girl. "Spry? Can you hear me? What did you just say about Sokka?"

She twitched, and her eyelids moved a little. "Village..." Suddenly her eyes snapped open and she sat up abruptly, knocking foreheads with Katara.

"STUPID JET FISH WATER FLOOD VILLAGE SKUNK!" She screamed, and rubbed her bruised forehead. "Ow," She said. "Whassgoinon?"

Katara touched a hand to her own bruise to make sure it wasn't bleeding. "What was _that_?" She demanded.

Spry looked around in confusion. "Wet.." She muttered.

Aang and Katara exchanged worried glances. "Um, are you feeling okay?"

Spry frowned. "Cof ourse am okay me."

"Uh, maybe you'd better take a walk and get some fresh air." Suggested Aang.

"Yes. Yes I do." Spry answered, and stood up, wobbling a bit. She looked around, still frowning, and made her way around the corner and out of sight.

Katara stood as well, gazing after Spry with raised eyebrows. "I have no idea if that was just her being herself or if I rattled her brains from slapping her." She said to Aang, who shrugged. "I think she-"

"Katara! Bald-head kid!" Both of them looked up as Jet came sprinting towards them, stopping short just in front of Katara. "There you guys are! I've been looking all over for you."

"Hey, Jet!" Said Aang with a smile, apparently not noticing the new nickname he had just been assigned. "What's up?"

Jet smirked. "You guys don't mind lending me a hand, do you? I just need you to help me drown a- I mean, I just need you to help me out a little, okay?"

"Sure thing, Jet." Said Katara enthusiastically, "What is it?"

Jet smiled and draped his arms around the shoulders of the both of them. "Just come with me." He said.

_Idiots_. He thought to himself.

**~oOoOo~**

Jet led the two down to the river, explaining to them how they needed to pull the water up from the geysers and let it spill out. After assuring them they could do it, he watched lazily as the two worked together to fill up the reservoir.

Aang wiped the sweat off of his forehead and turned to Jet with a triumphant smile in place. "You were right, Jet! This isn't too hard after all."

"Told you so." Jet answered, fiddling with his twig.

Katara beamed. "Thanks for letting us help," she said, blushing and looking down at her feet. "I'm sure Sokka won't be pleased to hear about it, though. He's convinced that you and the Freedom Fighters are all crooks or something."

Jet's eyes flashed menacingly for a moment, and for some reason this was the first and only suspicious thing Katara had noticed about him just now. "Oh, I wouldn't worry about it." He said, "The Fire Nation were gonna burn down this forest, and it was Sokka's idea to get you two to have the river ready to put it out."

Aang and Katara exchanged incredulous looks. "Really?" Aang asked, "Sokka cared about putting out a _forest_?"

"Yeah, he was pretty passionate about it." Said Jet, managing (with a HUGE effort) not to roll his eyes.

"Huh." Said Katara with a shrug. "You know, I haven't seen him all morning. Maybe I should go look for him before he does anything-"

"No, no!" Said Jet, jumping up from his lounging position against a tree. "I mean- he's been with me all morning, helping me out with my missions and stuff, you know? I think he's over there now. But you need to stay her and help Baldy fill up the reservoir." He said, placing his hands on her shoulders.

"Oh.. okay." She said, starting to get just a little weirded out now.

"Jet, my name's Aa-"

"Yeah, sure. Listen, I gotta get back to the reservoir. The scouts are waiting for me. You two just keep on working, alright?"

The two nodded. "Great. Hey, when you're done, just head on over back to the club house, got it? Don't wait for me."

"Sure thing, Jet." With one last wave, he was gone.

Katara turned to Aang with concern all over her facial features. "Did that seem just a little bit weird to you?"

"Yeah, I mean you and Sokka have called me 'Aang' in front of his face tons of times, you think he would remember-"

"No, not that." She shook her head. " Never mind. Let's just get back to work and we can talk about it later."

**~oOoOo~**

"Okay, I spy something... green."

"Tree!"

"Aw, man!"

"My turn. I spy something.. tallish and brown."

"It's a tree, isn't it?"

"Crudscones."

Sokka groaned loudly, earning himself another shove from Smellerbee. "Shut up!" She snarled. Sokka groaned anyway.

For the last hour he'd been traipsing through this stupid forest listening to Smellerbee and Pipsqueak play "I Spy"- and pretty much nine out of ten times the answer was 'tree'.

He flexed his fingers painfully, trying to loosen the leather strap binding his wrists together.

They had tied his hands behind his back after the last fifteen times he had tried to escape, and now he was sorely regretting it. Sighing, he looked around at the ground, wishing someone could kill him so he wouldn't have to hear the words 'I spy' ever again.

"I spy with my little eye something big and burly and not very bright." Smellerbee said, throwing a smug glance at Pipsqueak, who tapped his chin and looked about thoughtfully. "Um, is it a tree?"

"No. It's you, idiot!" While she roared with laughter at her little joke, Sokka rolled his eyes in annoyance when all of the sudden something at the edge of his vision caught his attention. Giving a start, he piped up suddenly, "Hey, can I play?"

"No." Smellerbee snapped immediately, but Pipsqueak, perhaps tired of her insults, said, "Sure thing. Your turn!"

"I spy something fast and good-looking and incredibly ingenious." Said Sokka.

The two looked around the forest eagerly.

"You want a hint?" Sokka asked teasingly.

"No! Hold on a moment." Said Smellerbee, squinting at the trees.

"I give up." Pipsqueak said.

"Uh.. Is it a.. tree?" Smellerbee asked uncertainly.

"WRONG!" Sokka shouted, and made a very unpredictable dash for the trees ahead.

"Hey!" Smellerbee screeched and instantly flew after him, Pipsqueak not far behind. Pulling out her knife, she aimed it at the runaway's back. "Hold still!" She ordered.

"You can't catch me! _Neener-neener-neener_!" Sokka taunted, rounding another tree. He could hear her growl and he narrowly dodged the small dagger she threw at him. Ducking under a low-hanging branch, he cried out, "The dragon goes under the bridge-" He jumped over a fallen log. "-over the tower, and finally-" He ran straight ahead, almost feeling Smellerbee's arm reaching out less than an inch behind him. "-through the castle!"

There was a loud _snap!_paired with loud cries of surprise, and he turned around to smile smugly at the Freedom Fighters hanging in two very familiar Fire Nation traps you may remember from chapter two.

"The answer was me, in case you couldn't tell." He said. Smellerbee threw her leeching nut at him, which he easily sidestepped.

"You'll have to do a little better than that!" Sokka chided, "Who's your daddy n- OW!" He cut short as her second leeching nut hit him square in the eye, releasing its acidic and very painful juices (Nuts have juice? Who'dda thunk?) into his eye-socket.

"AAH! IT BURNS!" He cried, writhing on the ground in pain. She laughed with evil pleasure as he got up, squinting in one eye, and glared at her.

"You'll pay for this!" He cried, staggering away, "You'll _totally_ pay for this! _Hahaha_!"

**~oOoO~**

"Well, that looks good enough to me." Katara stood back, admiring their work. The river was now swollen and at least ten times as big as it was before.

"Yep!" Aang agreed, stretching out his sore muscles. "Guess we'd better get back to the hideout, then."

"No, I want to go down to the reservoir." Katara announced.

"What? But Jet said-"

"I know what Jet said." Katara interrupted, "I'm sure he'll be happy to see us. Besides, I think I owe Sokka an apology after he started helping out Jet so much. And _I_thought he was plotting to kill him or something."

Aang nodded reluctantly. "Yeah.. I guess so."

So the two set off up the path, talking about lunch, life, and the pursuit of more lunch (I'm hungry, all right?). Soon they came to the end of the path and found themselves at the edge of a cliff, looking over the village below, which doesn't make any sense because that's not where the path was earlier when they had taken it down to the river.

Katara blinked in confusion. "Um, did we take a wrong turn?" She said, looking around.

Aang was equally puzzled. "I don't think so. I don't remember taking any turns." He squinted at the dam in the distance. "Are those.. _people_ down there? With those barrels?"

She followed his gaze and gasped.

"What? What is it?" Said Aang, clearly alarmed.

"I- I just realized I forgot to feed Appa this morning!" She said and gasped again.

"Oh. Well that's not so bad. As long as you give him extra for lunch, I don't think he'll min-"

"NO! Not that! Look! Those are _Freedom__Fighters_ down there! With _explosives_!"

Aang looked again and realized that she was right. "Oh, no." He said in barely a whisper, "Katara, do you realize what this means? They're gonna flood the village!" He turned to her and saw his own fear and amazement reflected in her eyes.

"No." She said suddenly. "No. He wouldn't. Jet couldn't-"

"He can and he will." Aang interrupted firmly. "I have to go stop them." He pulled out his super special awesome Avatar glider and unfurled its folds. Katara was still in defiance as she watched him kick off from the ground, alighting into the air.

_This can't be happening.._

All in a flash, someone knocked him straight out of the sky and onto the ground.

"Aang!" Katara cried aloud, and rushed to the fallen Avatar. They both looked up at the tall figure who had stopped him and gaped.

"Jet!" Katara spat the name out like a poison on her tongue, jumping up to her feet. "Those are _your_ Freedom Fighters down there, about to flood the village! How could you, you horrible, festering, slimy, disgusting piece of... _muffin_!"

Jet laughed at her failed attempt at an insult. "Oh, come on, Katara. You can do better than that. Even Sokka managed to almost hurt my feelings."

"Sokka?" Katara's eyes widened. FINALLY, she began to see the light. "What have you done with Sokka?" She practically screamed.

"Oh, nothing he can't handle." Jet said, idly examining his hook swords. "He refused to come to the Dark Side with me. Even after I offered him cookies."

"Cookies?" Aang repeated, perking up at once.

"Shut up, Baldy." Jet snapped, "I want Katara to come to the Dark Side, not you! So whaddya say, Katara? What's your favorite kind of cookie?"

"Where's Sokka?" Katara demanded, unswayed.

Jet scowled. "That's how it is, is it? Well then, I guess you won't be needing this anymore." He fingered Aang's glider, which had skidded across the ground at his feet.

Aang stood, assuming the airbender stance. "I don't want to hurt you, Jet." He said calmly.

"That's too bad," Said Jet, readying both of his hook swords, "Cause I'm gonna kill me some AVATAR!"

(IF DESIRED, INSERT LONG FIGHT SCENE HERE)

**~oOoOo~**

Sokka ran through the forest as fast as he could, huffing and puffing and hoping he wasn't too late. At some point he'd managed to free his hands through a long and painful process involving a rock, a wooden stake and a banana slug.

Bursting through a group of bushes, he found himself at the very same place he'd been tramping through earlier this morning when he was trying to track Jet. In fact, there was the very same place where the skunk had accosted him, now occupied by a black and white object which looked suspiciously like a skunk- especially the way it lifted its eyes up to him with that same innocent expression.

"_Mreeep!"_

"Aah!" Sokka cried in surprise, flinching away. The lemur-skunk made a move to lift up its tail, but Sokka put his hands in the air in defeat. The creature seemed to glare at him in a way that said, _"__I__'__m__watching__you._"

"Okay, okay... I know you don't like me, and I don't like you. So let's just get this over with."

It cocked its head.

"There's a man who's going to flood that village down there, and I want to stop him. If you could just... point me the way, that'd be great."

It seemed to consider him for a moment. Finally, dropping it's haunches, it began walking in a straight path toward North, stopping to look back at him.

"I can't believe I'm doing this. What? I didn't say anything. Fine, this way."

The skunk lead him onward for about fifteen minutes before halting and turning around to stare at him. Sokka looked around. "What? You can't remember from here? Is that it? Great!" He kicked a nearby pebble and crossed his arms, scowling. "Great idea, Sokka. Follow a skunk out into the middle of a jungle. Brilliant. Just brilliant!"

He looked back at the skunk. It wasn't there.

"Hey! Skunky? Come back!" He got down on his knees, uplifting a rock in his search. " I didn't mean it! Skunky? Aw, man.." He stood up. "Well, looks like it's just Sokka from here on out."

BOOM!

Sokka ducked back down, covering his head as the loud explosive noise rent the air, followed by a loud whoosh of running water. His eyes widened as he suddenly realized what that meant. "No!" He shouted, jumping back up, "The village! No, no, no!"

Pushing aside the branches in front of him, he stumbled upon a startling scene.

"I. HATE. YOU. SO. MUCH."

Sokka gaped. Before him stood Aang and Katara, looking just as befuddled as himself, watching Spry slapping the bejeebies out of Jet.

_Slap! Slap! Slap!_

"Uh.. What's going on?" Said Sokka. Katara and Aang finally noticed his presence and ran to him.

"Sokka!" Katara cried, throwing her arms around him. "I thought Jet _murdered_ you!"

"Yeah, well.. I'm alive.." He said lamely, patting his baby sister on the back. He was still staring at the never-ending slapping going on. "How did you know what Jet was up to?"

Spry looked up and stopped slapping Jet for the moment. "Huh? What are you talking about?" She said as Jet passed out from too much slapping, flopping onto the floor with a notable _whump_.

"The.. the flooding? Of the village?" Sokka said, becoming increasingly more confused.

Spry looked at him as if he were speaking another language. "Sometimes you guys say the weirdest things."

They stared at her.

"What?" She demanded.

Sokka pointed to her head. "Um, why do you have noodles in your hair?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah." She touched a hand to the top of her head and grinned. Her hair was a total and absolute mess- mixed in it were strands of ramen noodles, chunks of splintered wood, a wad of chewed gum and three or four feathers.

"Well, Aang told me to go for a walk, so I wandered around until I got to that village over there. Then I terrorized their soup bar, abused their pillow and feather mattress store, maybe destroyed a building or two or three, and basically freaked out the whole town until they all decided to pack up and leave. Then I came up here, and Jet was being smirky and murdery. So then I started smacking him." As she said this last statement, she picked up the unconscious Jet by the front of his shirt and continued to slap him again.

Sokka clutched his head with both hands as a headache was starting to form there. "Wait, wait, wait," He said, "So you're telling me that the villagers _aren__'__t_ drowning as we speak?"

"What now? Hey, you guys wanna try this? It's fun!" She said, shaking Jet's slapified form.

"Um, no thanks.." Said Aang, inching away from her.

Shouts could be heard in the distance, and Katara turned to her brother with a look of shock on her face. "The Freedom Fighters! They'll come looking for Jet! We have to leave!"

Aang nodded. "Come on! Let's go find Appa!" They dragged Spry away from Jet and began sprinting through the woods as the shouts drew nearer and footsteps could be heard.

**~oOoOo~**

The group sat on Appa's back as they flew through the air. Each of them was silent as they mulled over the events of the past couple days. Well, _most_ of them were thinking about that, anyway.

"So, Spry," said Sokka suddenly, "_Where_ did you say you were from?"

Spry glanced around all shiftily like. "It's classified."

Katara rolled her eyes. "Right. So you can't tell us, huh?"

"Sure I can," She answered, "But I might have to kill you."

"Tell us!" Said Aang enthusiastically.

"Can't say I didn't put your best gift horse in... mouth?" She tapped her chin thoughtfully. "I might have my sayings mixed up. Anyway, I live in Lala Land."

Sokka snorted in disbelief. "Of course you do!"

Spry looked shocked. "What? You don't believe me? It's a land where donuts wear fedoras and do little funny dances, shoes are made out of bananas, birds are secret agents sent to spy on me, and it makes for a great place to go when you don't want to do your homework."

"I think she might be telling the truth, guys." Said Aang, making the "coocoo" motion.

Katara crossed her arms. "Well, what made you decide to come here, anyway?"

"My roommate was getting boring."

They exchanged odd glances. "_Roommate_?"

**Yes, I know I took FOREVER to update, but I did something stupid to one of my main typing fingers, and then I got lazy, and then I was like, "La la la la la!" and at some point this chapter was finished. I know this one is really long, and it gets kind of rambly towards the end, but oh, well. Thank you for reading, and- OOH! LOOKIT THE BLUE BUTTON DOWN THERE! DON'T YOU WANT TO CLICK?**

**P. S. I have the next chapter almost entirely planned out, so I should update a lot sooner... hopefully...**


	6. Missing Roommates

**Hey, readers! Guess what? By reviewing this chapter, you receive a heartfelt thanks from Spry herself, and a FREE ticket to Lala Land! Isn't that a great deal? Thanks Ishi Bana Bana, Melody Sparrow, Forever Fyre and Fyre-Flakes for reviewing! Also, thanks to MysticalButterfly98 for favoriting and for patiently listening to my ramblings.**

**Behold! Spry's roommate! What's this I hear you asking? Why did I choose the name Property? I have no idea! :D**

The first thing Property noticed after stumbling blindly out of bed to yawn and groan for a few minutes was that the bed next to hers, usually occupied by her roommate, was empty.

She pushed her messy hair out of her face and frowned. This was odd. On a regular day, Spry could be expected to stay out cold until at least eleven o'clock, and even then it would take her an entire half-hour to be fully functional.

Shrugging, she decided that breakfast had priority over missing roommates, and shuffled into the combined kitchen and sitting room area, proceeding to make herself some toast.

At first, everything seemed normal. She took no notice of the sheet of notebook paper slapped on the bread bag, or of the sticky note pinned to the butter stick, or even of the letters cut out from a magazine that were pasted to the table. It wasn't until she had begun eating her strawberry poptart (Yes, she was eating toast and a poptart in the SAME MEAL) and had found it to be tasting rather papery that things began to go amiss.

Spitting out the piece of paper that someone had taken the time to lodge into her poptart, she spent five minutes gagging before it actually occurred to her to read the words written on it. In rather spit-covered, strawberry-smelling letters, the note read,

'_Proppy,_

_Kidnapped by the Mafia. Be back for lunch. _

_Spry!_'

She stared at this note for a moment before crumpling it into a little ball and choosing to forget about it. Jumping up, she made herself a cup of honey and added some tea, humming "Crazy Train" as she did so. Which soon turned into singing "Crazy Train", which then became totally unrestrainedly rocking out to "Crazy Train".

She was interrupted during the chorus by a small sound, startling her out of her air guitar. Looking around in alarm, she spotted a small white rabbit sitting on the floor, staring up at her with wide eyes. Property raised an eyebrow. That was not supposed to be there.

"Mr. Bojangles?" She scooped up her beloved pet rabbit into her arms and looked at him curiously. "How did you get out of your cage?" She wondered aloud, "And... is that _ice__cream_ on your chin?"

BANG!

Both the girl and the rabbit nearly keeled over in shock. Property whirled around to come face-to-face with her grinning roommate, who still had bits of noodles and wood chunks caught in her hair. "Whassup, Roomy?"

"How did you- where have- um.." She was struggling to decide which question was the more important and finally held out her hyped-up-on-ice-cream rabbit. "Did you feed Mr. Bojangles ice cream?"

Spry nodded vigorously. "Uh-huh. You want some?"

Property couldn't help but notice that she was reaching into one of her pockets as she made this offer. "Um, no thanks."

Spry shrugged. "Fine. Say, could you take this for me? 'Kay thanks, great." She thrust a large tote bag into her roommate's hands and began roaming the room, grabbing random objects. She stopped momentarily to sniff the air. "Were you making something?"

"Toast." Property answered, examining the bag Spry had handed her. It was big and blue, and on it was a picture of a coffee cup with a smiley face. The words beneath it read,

'I was raised by a cup of coffee!'

Spry smacked her palm to her forehead. "Of course! How could I forget _toast_?" She scurried over to Property's plate and plucked from it the half-burnt pieces of bread, which she dumped into the tote bag along with an assortment of various strange items. Spinning around, she spotted the butter on the counter, shrugged, and threw it in too.

"Hey!" Property cried, and quickly snatched her bitten-out-of poptart before Spry could get her hands on it. But the latter was too busy gathering spoons, a patch of black fur and a puzzle piece to notice.

Property watched this process with a furrowed brow. "So, um.. how did it go with the Mafia?" She asked.

"Huh? Oh, yeah. They were nice. But _after_ that- oh, never mind, I'll show you!" Spry seized her by the ponytail and pulled her into the next room, ignoring her cries of pain, before stopping. "Ooh! Can't forget that!" She cried, and ran off to gather some useless item.

Property clutched at her head and glared at her roommate, who had the most annoying habit of pulling or tugging on her hair. "You have problems." She grumbled.

Spry spun around and quirked an eyebrow. "_You_ have a problem." She corrected.

"I'm not the one pulling on people's hair!"

"But you're- you're all like-" She waved her hands in the air in seemingly random patterns. "And then-" She made a face. "Like that."

Property blinked in confusion as Spry continued to gather as many music albums as she could in her arms. Clearly this was going to be one of _those_ days.

"Um, we need music where we're going?"

Spry looked up at her in shock. "We need music EVERYWHERE we're going! Ew! I think this is yours. Here, take this." She threw something at Property, who just barely managed to catch it. Looking down at the rectangular object in her hands, she stuck her tongue out as she realized it was a Hannah Montana album. Rather than stuff it into the already full tote bag, she tossed it out the window, which was still broken because of a certain Halloween party you may or may not have read about.

Crossing her arms, she glared at Spry. "You still haven't told me where we're going."

"Huh? Oh, yeah! I told you I would show you, didn't I?" Said Spry, who was now dumping Mr. Bojangles into the bag as well.

"Well you haven't done that either." She complained.

Spry gave an exasperated sigh. "Fine. Let's go." She seized her by the wrist this time, dragging her halfway to the door when she abruptly halted again, tapping her chin thoughtfully.

"What? You can't remember where it is?" Said Property impatiently. She's very impatient like that.

"No.. " Said Spry with a frown, "I just remembered..." She dug around in her pockets until she found what she was looking for.

Property's eyebrows knitted together as her roommate pulled out a white cloth.

"Sorry, Proppy," Spry said, "but it's loads more fun this way." With that, she pressed the cloth over Property's nose and mouth, and everything went dark.

**~oOoOo~**

"Ooh! I think she's waking up!"

The sound of scampering feet.

"Aw, come on, guys. She only bites when she's mad. Honest!"

"Ungh!" Property groaned and sat up, rubbing at her eyes. "My most of me hurts," she complained, and examined her surroundings.

She was sitting on cold, slightly damp concrete. Normal enough.

A flying lemur peered up at her from the ground. That was a little less tolerable, but she could deal with that for the moment.

Then she looked up and spotted the three cartoon characters huddled together, watching her nervously and her mind went EXPLODE.

Her eyes rolled into her head and she fell back onto the ground, twitching and spouting out the "Meow Mix" song.

Spry leaned over and prodded the delirious girl in the belly. "Uh-oh. I think her brain went into lock-down. Hold on a second." She pried the partially-eaten poptart from Property's fingers and waved it in her face. "Ooh, poptart! SMELL IT, PROPERTY!"

Property sat up abruptly, smacking her face into the poptart. Katara let out a little giggle but instantly retreated into silence as Property turned a frown upon her.

Property blinked at the cartoon characters. "Am I dead?"

"Wait.. you would see _us_ if you were dead?" Sokka scratched his head in confusion.

Spry ignored him. "No, Property. I didn't _murder_ you. I'm not _that_... um.. murderous?"

"Do I look like an angel or something?"

Katara rolled her eyes. "Yes, Sokka. You look like an angel."

"What?" Aang cried aloud, obviously not picking up on the sarcasm. "_Katara_! What are you saying? Sokka can't even _fly_!" He pointed out, waving his glider in her face.

"Aang, I was being sar-"

"AHEM!"

All three turned back toward Spry, who was glaring at them intensely.

Satisfied with their silence, she faced Property (who had been watching this exchange with a dumbfounded expression on her face) once more, and resumed their discussion.

"_Anyway_," Spry continued, throwing an extra glare in the Gaang's direction for good measure, "I decided to bring you along because of _them_."

Property's eyes went all shiny and round-like. "You mean- they _wanted_ to meet me?" She said, placing a very flattered hand over her heart.

"No," Said Spry, squashing her moment of dream-like joy. "They decided that they never ever wanted to meet you, so naturally I had to make it happen."

Property looked like Christmas had been delayed for another year.

"But no worries!" Spry said quickly, "You still get to personally meet the Gaang! Aang, Sokka, Katara- meet my very own roommate, Property. Say hi!"

Property turned a bright smile on them which quickly melted into a puzzled frown. "Um, why are they looking at me like I'm going to set their hair on fire?"

"Huh? Oh, they're just worried that I brought another maniac into our midst."

"You mean me, don't you? Well, I'm _not_ crazy."

The three exchanged unconvinced glances.

Property ignored them. "So what episode is this? Tales of Ba Sing Se? Zuko Alone? _Please_ tell me this is Zuko Alone!" She looked around eagerly for her favorite character.

"No, this isn't 'Zuko Alone'. I'm sure you'll recognize it if you look around." Said Spry.

"Let's see... a smelly old fish village, a couple of boats, and some old guy.. Hey!" She said suddenly, wrinkling her nose, "I know this episode! This is before Zuko's a main character! Why did-"

"'Episode'? 'Main character'?" Katara repeated, "What are you guys talking about? And what about Zuko?"

Spry clapped a hand over Property's mouth and grinned sheepishly. "Ignore her. She's crazy."

Property wrestled Spry's hand away from her mouth just long enough to shout, "I am NOT crazy!"

**~oOoOo~**

A solitary figure stood upon the hulking metal ship, hands behind his back as he stared accusingly at the horizon. He scowled at the clouds forming there as if daring them to come closer. He could intimidate them if only he knew how to bend lightening like a certain pyschotic little sister who was not to be named.

The thought of said unnamed maniac only served to worsen his mood, and, deepening his scowl, he turned away to stalk a few angry steps in the opposite direction.

General Iroh sat nearby, snoring with his eyes closed and his chin drooping to rest on his chest.

Zuko glared at his uncle. The hot, humid weather was making everyone (including the crew) more prone to laziness and secret nap-taking, and it was bugging the heck out of poor Zuko.

"Uncle!"

Iroh's head shot up with a snort. "Eh, yes, my nephew?"

"How can you be sleeping at a time like this?" Zuko demanded, "The avatar is close! I can sense him."

"Mm? Oh, no, I wasn't sleeping." Iroh assured him, "I was just, uh, resting my kidneys." He patted his rotund stomache for emphasis. "Yes. After all that tea they just needed a moment to themselves."

Zuko couldn't help but notice that Iroh was pouring himself another cup of tea as he said this. He turned back to stare down the black clouds approaching, choosing to ignore his uncle's ramblings.

"Hm. Looks like a storm is coming." Iroh commented.

"It's just a couple of clouds. We should press on." Zuko said shortly.

"But don't you think it might be a little bit dangerous to-"

"It doesn't matter. We're close."

"Look, there's a nice village nearby where we can dock until the storm passes. We can sit down, talk for a while-" Zuko made a sound almost like growling. "Or we could not talk. Just sit together and have a nice, relaxing cup of te-"

"I DON'T CARE ABOUT YOUR STUPID TEA!" Zuko shouted out, and stomped back inside the ship, leaving Iroh on the deck alone.

The former general looked down and patted his teapot consolingly. "There, there." He told it, "He's just upset. He didn't mean that about you."

**Property is heavily based off of a friend of mine who is practically my total opposite. Almost the only similarity is that we're both crazy, except that she won't ever admit it. :D**

**Did you like it? Yes, it's true, I skipped over the episode, 'The Great Divide'. So what? YOU CAN'T PROVE ANYTHING!**

**Also, Forever Fyre is having a contest-y thing in her story "Fyre's Guide to Creativity". Go ahead and read the rules and then nominate this story! **

**...If you want to. **

**Till next time, Spry is OUT OF THE HOUSE!**


	7. TOAST!

**SOB! It's true! I haven't updated this story in forever! D:**

**But to those of you who don't already know (via my endless stream of random personal messages), I STILL LIVE!**

**-and look! I brought a new chapter with me! :D And also: THANK YOU MY AWESOME REVIEWERS! **

**For this chapter, I'm LOOKING AT YOU, ISHI, SARAH AND DAVE/BOB! IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT I'M UPDATING! MWAHAHA!**

***chokes, coughs* Oh, right. New chapter. ONWARD!**

It didn't take long for Property to figure out that the Avatarverse, like Spongebob and the Talking Heads, was kind of an acquired taste.

Her first clue to tell her that today wasn't going to be as fun as it looked was when Momo decided to steal the sad remains of her poptart- without sharing. Naturally, she tried to wring his furry little neck, but Momo just hid underneath Aang's shirt and ate his poptart in safety, making sure to smear some jelly on Aang's poncho-thing in the process.

Then she found out that the Gaang was out of food AND money, which meant no chance of a second breakfast, and that equaled an even sulkier Property.

Furthermore, the gang was still kind of freaked out by her, and it didn't help that Spry kept documenting her facial expressions with comments like, "Just like Oscar the Grouch!"

So, starving, grouchy and increasingly irritable, the Gaang plus two wandered the streets aimlessly- I guess in search of food. But how were they supposed to find food lying around on the street, hmm?

"I'm hungry." Sokka complained, massaging a lump on his head that he had earned by ticking off Katara while she was holding a supposedly ripe melon.

Katara glared. "Sokka, you've said that at least five times already. Unless we find some money, we're not eating any food. Got it?"

Sokka grumbled to himself, which wasn't unusual. "What kind of a cheap town is this? There's no free samples or anything!"

"I don't think you'd want any of the free samples anyway, Sokka." Said Aang, eyeing the booths, pretty much all of which were selling fish of some sort (with the exception of the sloshing melons). In fact, the whole place smelled dully of fish, which in itself was enough to make everybody grumpy after the whole Jet episode. Well, everyone except Property, who was busy deciding who's fault it was that she was bored and starving and stuck in an Alternate Universe right now.

At first she figured it was Spry, but after some careful consideration she realized that it was CLEARLY the poptart's fault. Grudgingly, she admitted that the pastry probably deserved being eaten by a sugar-craving flying lemur. She was still hungry, though.

Property sniffed. "I miss my poptart."

"So do I," Said Spry, digging around in her bag (which for some reason looked completely different than it did earlier, and now sported the phrase, 'It was the _best_ butter'), "But it's a good thing I remembered to bring your toast along!"

She pulled out the burnt bread things triumphantly, waving them in the Gaang's faces..

Everyone froze.

Spry frowned. "What?" She demanded, looking down at the toast in her hands. Sudden realization dawned on her.

"Oh." She said, and made a run for it.

**~oOoOo~**

Farther down the street, a fisherman and some guy selling fish heads were having an argument.

The fisherperson was quite sure that squid-turtles burrowed near the shore, whereas the other guy claimed to be equally sure that squid-turtles only burrowed farther out at sea. Actually, the merchant knew that the fisher was right, but he didn't want to look like an idiot so he kept arguing anyway.

"I'm telling you, it's the shore!" Fisherman argued.

"Nuh-UH!" Said Merchant, because he couldn't think of anything better to say.

"Stop being an idiot!"

"No, you!"

"All right, buddy- there's only one way to settle this: A fist fight!" Fisherman said, pretending like he totally knew how to fist fight.

"Yeah?" Said Merchant.

"YEAH!"

Suddenly a weird sound interrupted their flap-mouthing, and both stopped to listen. It sounded kind of like a Chihuahua on a caffeine rampage, but also sorta like nails on a chalkboard. The sound started getting louder, and something appeared down the street, flailing it's limbs and running toward the two ridiculously fast.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

The thing turned out to be some girl, who ran past them without stopping her continuous shrieking noise.

The two men looked after her and turned to each other with puzzled expressions.

"What was that?" Said the merchant.

The fisherman shrugged. "Rabies?"

They both looked back down the street to where she had disappeared, and were too busy scratching their heads to notice the bigger crowd of hunger-crazed water-tribe teenagers, a regular teenager, and Avatar trampling them.

**~oOoOo~**

Spry ran around a corner and ducked behind a trash can, panting. She peered around the bin anxiously, and then turned to glare down at the toast in her hands. "This is all your fault!" She hissed at it crossly.

It remained silent.

"You're right, I can't stay mad at you." Spry said, tapping her chin thoughtfully. "But if I don't get rid of you soon, we'll both be toast. No offense," She added hastily, and then scowled at it again. "It's a common expression! You don't have to get so worked up about it!"

She pouted. "Fine. But if you're going to be like that, I could always eat y-AH" This last part was added as a certain Sokka appeared out of nowhere and yanked the toast out of Spry's lap.

"YOINK!" Sokka exclaimed.

"HEY!" Spry cried, and made a grab for it. Sokka easily dodged and sprinted down the street, cackling madly and waving the toast in the air triumphantly.

Spry leapt up and tackled him around the knees, knocking Sokka to the ground and causing him to cry out in surprise and let go of the toast, which was instantly swept up by a young airbender.

Spry and Sokka stared disbelievingly at Aang's retreating back, which was then bowled over by an enormous waterbended wave while the toast flew up into the air, only to be snatched by Katara.

They scrambled to their feet and reached her just in time to see Property swinging a sweater savagely at Katara, who in turn was splashing saltwater into Property's face. The toast lay on the ground a few feet away.

Sokka glanced at Spry.

Spry glanced at Sokka.

They both made a dive for the toast.

Spry reached it first, and jumped to her feet with wild laughter. She looked up to gloat in their faces but suddenly realized her situation.

In front of her stood the Gaang, panting and glaring at her murderously. Behind her was the ocean, tossing and turning savagely. She was standing on the very edge of the dock, and she was trapped.

Spry looked down at the toast in her hands contemplatively for a moment. She knew what she must do.

"Just give us the toast, Spry." Katara coaxed.

Spry hesitated. "NEVER!" She cried out suddenly, and for some unfathomable reason turned and flung the toast out at the water.

The Gaang watched in horror as the toast landed with a small _splash! _into the waves.

Silence.

Sokka's jaw was on the floor, eye twitching, before he promptly fainted. Katara pinched the bridge of her nose. "Spry…. _why_ did you do that?"

"That is a very good question," Spry replied, "I'll answer it in a minute."

"That was our only food left!" Aang moaned, "And you just threw it away?"

"Um… Well, look on the bright side- at least the fish are happy!" Spry said quickly, "And who knows? Maybe we can catch some fish this way!"

"You can't catch fish with TOAST!" Some elderly voice croaked.

Apparently a boat had been tied to the dock beside the Gaang the whole time. Noticing it for the first time, they turned and spotted the old dude on the boat who had spoken. He glared back at them.

"Uh.." Said Spry.

"Uh yourself! You can't fish with toast unless you've got a net!" The old guy repeated.

"Thanks for the helpful advice." Katara said uncertainly.

Her brother was starting to stir, and he sat up, blinking woozily, and frowned. "Does that say 'help wanted' or 'kelp wandered'?" Sokka said, pointing to a sign slapped to the side of the fishing boat.

The old person rubbed his stubble thoughtfully, regarding Sokka with a squinted eye. "You look young and inexperienced." He noted, "Can you fish?"

"I was the top fisher in my village!" Sokka boasted, and was smacked by a glaring Katara. "No you weren't!"

Sokka waved her away with a hand. "So am I hired?"

"Maybe. Do you have a will?"

"None whatsoever!" Sokka declared.

"You're hired!" Said the old fisherdude, and threw a heap of fishing nets at him. Sokka attempted to catch them and ended up on his back again.

Katara shook her head. "Well, I guess it might help if we found some jobs, too-"

"WHAT?" Spry shrieked suddenly, "Nobody told me I had to DO anything! How am I supposed to torture you guys when I'm _working, _huh?"

"-_anyway_," Katara continued, "We should probably split up. It'll be faster that way."

"I could get Momo to dance for money!" Aang suggested cheerily, thrusting the jelly-smeared lemur in Katara's face.

She cringed and pushed it slightly to the left. "Right and I'll-"

"-GO WITH AANG!" Property interrupted, sticking to the avatar's arm. Everyone stared.

"What?" Said Property defensively, "I don't want to go with Spry! She'll do something weird to me!"

Spry turned with a maniacal grin toward Katara.

"Oh, no." Katara groaned, hiding her face in her hands. "Why me?"

Sokka stood up with an audible grunt and threw the fishing nets back into the boat. "Well, see you guys later." He said, and turned to his employer. The old guy was bending over the water and stuffing something into his mouth.

Sokka raised an eyebrow. "Um, are you eating that toast?"

The fisherdude stood up suddenly with a glare, wiping crumbs out of his beard. "No! Get back to work!"

**Thank you, thank you, one and all!**

**YAY! I know, kinda boring, right? Ah, well. :P Hopefully I will be updating much much much much MUCH sooner than last time.**

**CUPCAKES TO EVERYONE WHO REVIEWS! **

**Spry!**


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